Pellegrini: Man City will take title race down to wire

Manuel Pellegrini insists Manchester City cantake the Premier League title race down to the wire because Liverpool and Chelseawill drop more points before the end of the season.City are title outsiders after a 3-2 defeat at leaders Liverpool and then a 2-2 drawwith Sunderland in midweek left them six points off top spot.That gap will become nine points if Liverpool win at Norwich on Sunday.But Pellegrini, whose team host West Bromwich Albion in a must-win fixture onMonday, is sure City still have a chance to overhaul the leaders because theunpredictable nature of the season suggests Liverpool and Chelsea could both slipup before the race is run.Pellegrini's assessment was made before Chelsea slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home toSunderland on Saturday, a shock result which confirmed his theory.It also opened the door for City to move closer to the second-placed Blues, who arecurrently four points ahead of the Eastlands outfit having played two games more."I am absolutely sure the other teams will drop points in the same way we did in thelast game. We have 15 more points to play for and we will try and win the mostamount of points," Pellegrini said."Then, at the end of the season, we will see who has the title. All of us want to win asmuch as we can. We must try to finish this season in the best way. "The game against Sunderland was a disappointment because we always want towin but as I said before that game, playing against relegation-threatened teamsduring the last games of the season is not easy."The performance in every game is very important and I hope we are going toimprove our performance against West Brom."Pellegrini wants City to guard against complacency and midfielder James Milner iscertain West Brom will offer a similar test to Sunderland as they battle to pull awayfrom the relegation zone.- Keep fighting -"West Brom will be a tough game and we have to bounce back after a tough coupleof moments in the season," Milner said."We need to make sure we keep fighting, which we will do. It's probably a similargame to Sunderland and they're going to come and look to hit us on the break like alot of teams do."City's David Silva is doubtful with the ankle injury that kept him out of theSunderland match, while team-mate Jesus Navas could also miss out once again witha similar injury.Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure will be absent with a groin injury he sufferedagainst Liverpool and Serbia centre-back Matija Nastasic is out with a knee injury.Meanwhile, the Baggies are aiming to respond to the blow of conceding an injury-time equaliser to draw 3-3 with Tottenham last weekend after leading 3-0.It came just a fortnight after they had surrendered the lead in the dying seconds todraw by the same scoreline with Cardiff.Albion boss Pepe Mel said: "Our feelings are very positive. To score three goalsagainst Tottenham is a positive. We take that from the game."And the Spaniard, who will come up against an old rival in Pellegrini from their LaLiga days, admits watching fellow strugglers Sunderland draw at Eastlands left himwith mixed emotions."This has two possible readings," he added. "One is that Sunderland gained a pointbut the other interpretation is that we can go there and get a point."The Baggies have claimed eight points from their previous five matches and Mel,who will hold talks over his future once the club's fate has been settled, remainsupbeat over their prospects of beating the drop. He added: "It is impossible that West Brom will go down. It isn't something I'vetalked about. I will speak about my future after that." Source: AFP